The Zoologist— May, 1873. 3525 



when she came right up to me, and stopping hegan to smell first at the gun, 

 and then, commencing at my toe, she ran her nose up my leg as far as she 

 could reach, rising on her hind legs ; and then quickly bringing her fore feet 

 to the ground and clapping her ears to her shoulders, she wheeled round 

 and kicked at me. She then went on five or six paces and commenced 

 feeding. It was difiicult to keep from laughing out at this performance, 

 but I managed to keep still, and allowed her to get away. I wonder what 

 " puss " took me for, perhaps a new-fashioned gate-post or something of that 

 Bort. — John Sclater ; Castle Eden, Durham, April 2, 1873. 



Varieties of Rat. — Within the past year, or year and a half, I have seen 

 Bome very peculiar varieties of this very troublesome and destructive 

 quadruped. Since last December I have seen five or six of an uniform 

 Bilver-gray, of various sizes and from different localities. Such variation, 

 however, was not new to me, as I preserved one and saw others of a like 

 colour during last summer. I have also seen another of a pale yellowish 

 brown, — much the colour of a leveret, — with a darker stripe down its back ; 

 but the most remarkable variety I have ever seen was one, a few months 

 ago, in which the prevailing colour was a dark brown, upon which were spots 

 of pure white, reminding one of a prettily marked dog. This latter was a 

 full-grown male, but the other specimens were in various stages of growth. 

 I believe the spotted specimen was preserved, but the others I think were 

 not. — G. B. Corhin. 



Semi-aqaatic Habits of the Common Shrew, — I have frequently observed 

 and caught specimens of the common shrew in some wet swampy marshes 

 in this neighbourhood, which are inundated for a considerable time every 

 winter, the water remaining upon them sometimes into March. Early in 

 the spring of 1872, after a sudden flood, I found numbers of them on the 

 small patches of high gi'ound left uncovered by the water, and indeed in 

 some places where the ground was quite covered, only the broken-down 

 stems of the reeds, &c., being left above water, and about which the shrews 

 were running with remarkable activity ; at times they seemed to be actually 

 running upon the watei', as the scum which had formed upon the surface, 

 with a few floating odds and ends, was generally sufiicient to support their 

 weight. I have found their nests by the sides of ditches, and in such cases 

 upon the occupants being disturbed they often take to the water, swimming 

 with great ease. The above-mentioned were all examples of the common 

 shrew [S. araneus, Linn.). Is it usual for this little animal to frequent such 

 situations as these ? I have never been able to meet with the water shrew 

 here till this year, when my bi'other picked up a dead one, which had a 

 slight wound in the skull, apparently from a bite. This specimen agreed 

 in almost every respect with Mr. Bell's description, except that there was a 

 grayish spot in the centre of the black patch round the insertion of the tail. 

 Several years ago I caught a very large shrew on the banks of a fish-pond 

 SECOND SERIES — VOL. VIIJ. 2 B 



